Archive for March 13th, 2009

As you may recall, last year I wrote a Top 5 list of things that I was excited about for the future. Number one on the list was the possibility of a full-fledged Jane’s Addiction reunion complete with the band’s MVP, bassist Eric Avery.

Well the future is here!

They boys are back together and are taking off on a North American tour! Special thanks to Rob in Bradenton for giving me the heads up last week about this monumental event.

I’ve been waiting for this day for about fifteen years now. I first fell in love with the boys from Jane’s around 1993, a little over a year after they called it quits. Since then, they’ve done a couple of reunion tours that I was luckily enough to catch. I saw the Relapse tour in Chicago in 1997 which was by all accounts a pretty amazing show. This was mostly because Dave Navarro talked Flea into taking over on bass for the tour, and far as stand-ins go, Flea’s not bad.1

Back in 2003, the remaining band members hired the bass player from Alanis Morissette’s touring band(?!?) to replace Eric. They put out a mediocre albumtogether2 and headlined a mediocre Lollapalooza that year. I bought the album and caught the tour, but I was underwhelmed to say the least.

Since then most of the band’s members have lost a ton of creditability in my eyes. Lead singer Perry Ferell has done a ton of crappy side projects, including releasing a terrible album as Satellite Party and those super horrendous commercials for NCAA Football with 50 Cent.

Guitarist Dave Navarro has done even worse for himself, basically becoming a media whore. Not only did he host the terrible rock rip-off of American Idol Rockstar, he had that craptastic reality show where he married Carmen Electra. No shame!

And the drummer, Stephen Perkins, well, not much to say here…he’s the drummer. Stephen has always just gone with the flow. He stuck with Perry after the band originally split and helped him with Porno For Pyros, which was pretty awesome. After Jane’s last tour, he stuck with Dave and the shitty replacement bass player to form an even worse side band, Panic Channel.

Of all the band’s members Eric Avery is the only who has not managed to soil his good name. As you know from my Modern Rock 2008 review, Eric released uneven but occasionally brilliant solo album last year. He is still by far my all-time favorite bass player. His absence from the band was obvious on their last tour six years ago; I’m hoping his return will spark a creative resurgence for Jane’s Addiction.

I’m also hoping that the band’s new affiliation with Nine Inch Nails will also help bring an artistic revival of sorts. Trent Reznor has always listed Jane’s Addiction as one of his major influences. His remix of “Ted, Just Admit It” on the soundtrack to 1994’s Natural Born Killers Soundtrack was practically a love letter to the boys from Jane’s.

When Trent heard that the band played a couple of small shows together late last year in L.A., he invited them to join him in the studio. Here are a couple of good shots of the boys from Jane’s with Trent.

Apparently this arrangement worked out well for all involved. Last week both bands announced that they would be touring together this spring. The NIN/JA tour begins this May in Florida, and I am determined to attend.3

I’m planning my first trip back to Florida to hit the show in Tampa on May 9th. The tickets haven’t gone on sale yet, but when they do I’m sure I will find a way to make this happen.

The other big Jane’s Tour news is that the band is all but certain to headline Lollapalooza 2009, the festival they created back in 1991. It has been unofficially announced that Jane’s will headline one of the three nites of the festival, with the Beastie Boys and Depeche Mode as the other two headliners.

I will probably be gathering up a posse to head up to Chicago in August for the event, but this is heavily dependent on my excitement with the rest of the festival’s line-up. I will post an update once Lollapalooza formally announces its 2009 list of performers.

So if you haven’t picked up on it yet, I beyond ecstatic that my all-time favorite band is back together! Thank you boys, I’m like a pig in zen…

Long Live Jane’s Addiction!

Ciao,

The Captain

1 The major difference is that Flea slaps his bass, and Eric uses a pick. It’s a subtle difference, but significant nonetheless.

2. The only thing memorable from this album is the song “Superhero,” which eventually became the intro music to Entourage.

3 Once again, another great tour is skipping St. Louis. Why bands continue to choose Kansas City and Indianapolis over St. Louie is beyond me.